A New Lakers Dark Age in the Horizon?

Remember the 1993-1994 season? The Lakers were led by veteran Vlade Divac and upstarts Nick Van Exel and Sedale Threatt. James Worthy was in the tail end of a Hall of Fame career and Magic Johnson coached the team, with poor results.

That was the last Lakers Dark Age. Things were bad-- no marquee players (leading scorer Vlade Divac averaged 14.2 points), no success (33-49 regular season record) and no playoffs. While the Lakers were able to recover, a new Dark Age is dawning.

Kobe is unhappy and there's is a good chance he will be traded this season or the next, and given how the Lakers front office drops the ball on big trades, I'm sure the Lakers will get not maquee player in that transaction. With Andrew Bynum three more years away from becoming a force and no other young player surging, I see the 2009-2010 season a big black hole, probably a lot worse the 1993-1994 season, with the powers of the league placed in the Western Conference.

For franchises in the league for a long time, they are aware things are in a cycle-- you have good years and bad years. I guess the trick is shortening the waiting period between the good years. Just ask the Boston Celtics.

Tags: Lakers